Online advertising versus security: Where will the conflict end?

Regardless of how you feel about Web advertising, the Internet as we know it wouldn't exist without it. Advertising is a huge revenue source on the Web, and only a naive technology purist would think that a major Internet company could survive without this income.

Personally, I'm no fan of Internet advertisements and wish they weren't a necessary evil, but I accept the fact that they must exist for the Internet to function as it does. Like it or not, advertising is part of the Internet food chain.

But despite a general lack of interest in Internet advertising, it will continue to exist as long as advertisers feel they're getting a return on their investment. And companies such as Google and Yahoo will exist as long as they can sell ads. Even anti-advertising has become an industry as more and more products and services designed to block or remove advertising become available.

Admittedly, I almost never click an advertising link — and I don't think I'm in the minority — but that's simply how things are. However, without even taking this general apathy toward advertising into account, many conflicts between Internet advertising and Internet security already exist.

With so many scams and misinformation on the Internet, companies and people increasingly mistrust Internet content, and advertisements are no exception. In fact, I believe there will eventually be a point of diminishing returns. Internet security isn't getting better; it's getting worse — for users and advertisers.

Frustrated by glaring security weaknesses in Internet software, particularly Microsoft's Internet Explorer, many users are disabling scripting, add-ons and other features that companies rely on for delivering ads. Many are also switching to browsers that disable features used by advertisers by default.

As consumers become more security-conscious, legitimate Internet advertisements are becoming collateral damage. And that's saying nothing of all the ad-busting software and proxies making a dent in advertising revenue.

Even more alarming is the preponderance of "click fraud" currently going on. While many Internet companies report that their advertising revenue is up, you have to wonder about the amount of real sales generated for advertisers.

The dirty truth is that no one can really pinpoint the true amount of fraudulent hits generated by "click-through" and "autosurf" programs, which artificially inflate advertising numbers. And while advertisers continue to try to stop fraud and deliver legitimate advertisements…